Much bluster has been blown about the fact that the Dallas Mavericks are heading into the 2025-26 season sporting three No. 1 overall NBA Draft picks on their roster. It’s a rare distinction, to be sure,
and one that adds a fair amount of intrigue to the team’s prospects ahead of the first full year without Luka Dončić.
Is there enough firepower on this year’s squad to help fans move on from that catastrophic day in February? One of the three No. 1 draft picks, Kyrie Irving, will be on the shelf for most of the upcoming season as he recovers from the ACL tear he suffered during a March 3 game against the Sacramento Kings, so that very much remains to be seen. But the fact remains, the 2025-26 Mavs are chock full of dudes who were thought of very highly coming into the Association, alongside a lot of players who were thought to be full-fledged reclamation projects.
Here’s a list of where and when each current member of the Mavericks was drafted, if they were drafted at all. We’ll go in order of jersey numbers, why? Because I said so, that’s why.
00 Max Christie
Kormac Karl “Max” Christie Jr. was drafted in the second round of the 2022 NBA Draft, 35th overall by the Los Angeles Lakers out of Michigan State. He was a McDonald’s All-American before his one year at MSU and was thought of as a potential second-round steal by the time the Lakers selected him. He came into the league with a reputation as a guy with high character and a great work ethic, but needed to develop, both physically into his 6’6” frame with a 6’9” wingspan and on the court with shot selection and on defense.
He appears to have addressed both in his first three years in the league and still offers a little upside as an off-guard off the bench. He wowed Mavericks fans early on in his tenure with the Mavs after being included in the trade that sent Dončić to the Lakers in February, by scoring 15 or more points on a 51.9% shooting clip in his first seven games following his arrival.
0 Dante Exum
Dante Exum was selected with the fifth overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft out of Australia, specifically the Australian Institute of Sport, by the Utah Jazz. Pre-draft speculation saw Exum as a potential franchise cornerstone at guard, but that never materialized due to a brutal bout with injuries throughout the first seven years of his career.
After spending five years in Utah and two more with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Mavericks signed him to a two-year deal following his two-year stint in Europe, where he played for FC Barcelona in 2021-22 and Partizan Belgrade in 2022-23. The injury bug has claimed large swaths of his two years in Dallas as well. He played just 20 games last year after suffering a wrist injury before the 2024-25 season and a broken hand 15 games into his year.
There are flashes — moments — that still conjure images of the game-changing talent that could have been with Exum, so here’s hoping he can provide the ball handling and buckets the Mavs need off the bench in his third year with the team.
1 Jaden Hardy
Jaden Hardy was selected just two picks after Christie, with the 37th overall pick in the 2022 Draft, by the Kings. He previously played for the G-League Ignite. He was traded to the Mavericks in a draft-night deal that sent two future second-rounders to Sacramento. Hardy was thought of as an exciting scorer, but also a project, coming into the league. He had a reputation for freezing out teammates by hanging onto the ball too long at times, a habit only limited in his time in Dallas by the number of minutes he gets.
He’s still a guy that can get you 20 points if you’re in a pinch, but some bad always comes with the good with Hardy. He’s probably only here this year because the Mavs have such a need at the guard position with Irving recovering from his knee injury.
2 Dereck Lively II
Dereck Lively was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder a year later, with the 12th overall pick in the 2023 Draft, then sent in a draft-day deal to Dallas. He played one year at Duke and was thought of as an exciting, though raw, prospect after displaying incredible athleticism and ability at the rim in lieu of great statistical success. Dallas tanked the last two games of the 2022-23 season to stay in the draft lottery, ultimately resulting in a $750,000 fine and the rights to the “big man of the future.” Mavs fans everywhere would take that result every time it presented itself.
Lively has outperformed San Antonio Spurs savior Victor Wembanyama in each of the last two years’ season openers, and that in itself would be enough to call the pick a success, but Lively looks to be a lot more than just a gimmick with freaky athletic upside heading into his third year. The only thing holding him back is his own tendency toward injury. A small fracture in his foot limited him to 36 games last year, and he’s logged just 91 games in his first two years in the NBA.
3 Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis was the first overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft. He was selected by the then-New Orleans Hornets out of Kentucky after leading John Calipari’s Wildcats bunch to the 2012 NCAA Championship. He was thought of as a sort of Tim Duncan/Kevin Garnett hybrid with the ability to win multiple NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards and the potential to be a multiple first-team All-NBA Team selection. He’s largely made good on that potential across his 13 years in the NBA after making nine All-Star teams, four All-NBA First Teams and five All-NBA Defensive Teams.
What remains to be seen is how much is left in Davis’ tank coming into year 14 in the NBA. Last year, in 51 games, he was more of a 20-10 type guy than the dominant big man fans have come to know. His latest injury oddity comes in the form of a detached retina that will force Davis to wear protective goggles for the remainder of his career.
4 Dennis Smith Jr.
He’s got a jersey number on the team’s official website, so Dennis Smith Jr., the recent acquisition after spending last season playing in Europe for Real Madrid, goes in this section of the writeup. There is no guarantee that he makes the team this year, though, after he was brought back to Dallas two weeks ago on a one-year deal. Smith Jr. was originally drafted by the Mavericks with the ninth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft and was thought of as the team’s “next star guard” for a year until some guy named Dončić showed up. Coming out of North Carolina State after one year, he was seen as a score-first guard who could jump out of the gym, but whose outside shot and defense left something to be desired. He scored 15.2 points per game in his rookie year before his career seemed to fizzle a little as a New York Knick.
Smith Jr. has since rounded out his game defensively in later stops with the Charlotte Hornets and Brooklyn Nets, but make no mistake, he’s here for depth in the backcourt. There has been some early speculation that the 15th and final roster spot for the season opener may come down to Brandon Williams or Smith Jr.
5 D’Angelo Russell
D’Angelo Russell was selected with the second overall pick of the 2015 NBA Draft, by the Lakers out of Ohio State. He was viewed as a potential superstar after his one year at OSU due to his smooth offensive game and passing ability. He was compared to players like Manu Ginobili and James Harden out of college and hasn’t quite lived up to those lofty expectations.
Russell can still be an effective point guard in this league despite his tendency toward flightiness and wearing out his welcome at some stops along his NBA journey. The Mavs are counting on him, at least initially, to bridge the gap at the point until Irving returns from his knee injury. He’ll be here for at least a year after signing a two-year, $12 million deal with the Mavs this offseason, with the second year being a player option.
7 Dwight Powell
Amid all the tumult and roster churn, Dwight Powell persists. The 12th-year backup big out of Stanford and by far the longest-tenured Maverick on the roster just keeps showing up to work. One draft profile from 2014 called him a versatile player who lacked toughness. He’s developed a whole hell of a lot of that in the years since, even if he is relatively easy to score against, as he seems to take a forearm shiver to the grill in the lane at least once a week.
Powell was selected with the 45th overall pick of the 2014 NBA Draft by the Hornets. He came to the Mavs later that year as an add-on in the trade that brought Rajon Rondo to town — good Lord. He’s been here ever since, and we love him for that.
11 Kyrie Irving
Save us, Kyrie Irving. Irving was selected by the Cavs with the first overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft out of Duke. Minus LeBron James, who took his talents to South Beach a year earlier, Irving was tapped as the savior in Cleveland after playing just 11 games at Duke in his only college season, but there were very few holes in his game coming into the NBA. His dagger 3-pointer in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals sealed the win and the O’Brien Trophy for Cleveland and stands as one of the greatest clutch shots of all time.
He’s a great No. 1 option as a scorer and distributor and has become a much better leader on the floor in his years in Dallas, but his best moments have come while playing the role of Robin to James’ or Dončić‘s Batman. Just be sure not to characterize his recovery timeline as “ahead of schedule” as he works his way back from the torn ACL he suffered in March. That’s just bad reporting, according to the scrambled mind of Mavs head coach Jason Kidd, no matter who put it out there first.
21 Daniel Gafford
Daniel Gafford was selected with the 38th pick of the 2019 NBA Draft, by the Chicago Bulls out of Arkansas. He was seen as a bouncy if undersized center after two years in college — a good offensive rebounder and rim protector whose post moves and scoring lacked a little polish. You might still say that about Gafford as he enters his seventh year in the NBA, having just signed a three-year, $54 million contract extension through the 2028-29 season this offseason.
Gafford is third in the pecking order as part of the Mavs’ three-headed monster at the four or five. He’ll likely come off the bench to start this season, but part of his value lies in the fact that both Davis and Lively have a history of getting injured.
25 P.J. Washington
P.J. Washington became a fan favorite last year as the Mavericks came to depend upon his scoring and versatility more and more as injuries ravaged the rest of the roster. He was originally selected 12th overall by the Hornets in 2019 after spending two seasons at Kentucky.
He was hard to pigeonhole coming out of college after developing a reputation as a jack of all trades. His 8’11” standing reach made him an ideal small-ball center and his ability to score in a variety of ways positioned him as a baller first — one for whom a natural position wasn’t immediately made clear. He’s still that now, but he fits so well into the position-less game that NBA basketball has become that his versatility is now seen as his greatest asset. The Mavs also extended Washington this offseason — he signed a four-year, $90 million deal with the team on September 3.
31 Klay Thompson
Will the Summer of Klay lead into a more successful second year with the Mavs than his first year with the team? Thompson was originally selected with the 11th pick of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Golden State Warriors after playing three years at Washington State.
He was drafted for his sharpshooting reputation from the perimeter and now ranks fifth all-time in 3-pointers made in NBA history (2,697). Shooting translates, apparently. Thompson has two years left on the three-year, $50 million deal he signed with the Mavs in free agency before last season, so catching Ray Allen, who currently sits third all-time (2,973), is definitely in play.
32 Cooper Flagg
Deliver us from evil, Cooper Flagg, as we wait out Irving’s stay on the injury report. Flagg, the entire reason we’re writing this post in the first place, was selected by the Mavericks with the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft after the team entered the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery with just a 1.8% chance of getting the first pick.
See the vision? Flagg was heralded as one of the best American-born NBA Draft prospects since LeBron James after his one and only year at Duke last year. He can shoot but has room to improve from 3-point range, he can defend at any of three to four positions on the floor, he has an insane basketball IQ and a will to win that rivals all the greats. He’s as can’t miss as can’t miss can get coming into his rookie season, surrounded by a core that few, if any, first overall picks will ever see.
50 Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
Yes, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is a player for your Dallas Mavericks, at least for the moment. The team signed him to a non-guaranteed training camp contract around the same time the team signed Smith Jr. to a similar deal.
Robinson-Earl was selected 32nd overall in the 2021 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks before New York traded his rights to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 6’8” forward spent two years at Villanova before that, where he was the Co-Big East Player of the Year in 2021. Defense is his calling card — his lack of a consistent jump shot kept him out of the first round that year. He played the last two seasons in New Orleans, where he played just under 19 minutes per game and averaged 6.3 points per game last year.
The undrafted
Three undrafted players round out the Mavericks’ 2025-26 roster as currently constructed. Brandon Williams made a name for himself last year as an undersized injury fill-in at point guard last year to some acclaim and signed a two-year deal with the team this offseason. He played one year at Arizona (2018-19) before becoming one of the best guards floating around the NBA G-League since then.
Naji Marshall is more of a mainstay on the Mavericks’ roster and performed admirably last season after signing a three-year, $27 million contract with the Mavs before the 2024-25 season. He figures to be a weapon off the bench again this year. He played for three seasons at Xavier from 2017-2020 before catching on in the NBA with the Hornets.
Caleb Martin, on the other hand, has not found his footing with the Mavericks since being traded to the team from the Philadelphia 76ers for Quentin Grimes in February. He was injured when he arrived and played less than 20 minutes per game across 14 games with the team last year. Meanwhile, Grimes, whose contract status with Philly is still up in the air for the upcoming season, thrived with the ball in his hands after the trade to the 76ers last season, averaging 21.9 points across 33.6 minutes per game in 28 regular season games. Martin played two seasons at NC State and two more at Nevada from 2014-2019 before catching on in the NBA with the Hornets.
And although he was signed to a two-way deal following the 2025 NBA Draft, I just want to mention Ryan Nembhard here, too. Getting him as an undrafted rookie out of Gonzaga was something akin to grand larceny, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up seeing some time with the Mavs this season. Nembhard led the nation in assists as a senior last year (9.8 per game) after thriving more as a scorer in his junior season. He’s an old-school floor general with a new-school flair and polish to his offensive game and could make his mark in the NBA in the coming years.
